i’m kind of sad to say i wasn’t able to see the american icehouse venue, but i’m also willing to accept the backing collective’s decision to move over to the used and abused bastion of the kansas city music scene, the el torreon. as long as they continue to work with people who are willing to pursue nights of this caliber, i’ll continue to support their efforts.

we walked in a little late, missing the opening set by the night’s coordinator doby aka boo hiss and most of the dual-acoustic work of boston’s tomorrow the gallows.

the third band playing was lake, who hail from the anacortes area and were a lot of fun. this is the kind of band that just looks like the type who roll into the outskirts of town in a ‘72 VW bus - serge gainsbourg covering stan getz on the 8-track - where they get a flat tire and decide to play a few songs in a field while everything’s unloaded out of the van before they change the tire. there was much interchange of instruments throughout their set, not to mention the great melodies and harmonies - and the drummer’s vocal yelpings were a perfect touch in there as well. the freedom and innocence they brought to their music was, in a word, invigorating. they had tapes for sale. yes, tapes. i picked up their cd lake at the safety department and my wife and i spent the better part of tonight freaking out, thinking i had lost it - it had fallen down the side of the car seat, of course. the five-piece band’s set was a delightfully rambling, shambling experience and i’m thankful they were added to the bill.

in fact, here’s a video of them:

next up was the energetic mr. adrian orange, with lake filling in with him to play under the guise of adrian orange and the child slave rebellion. the resulting experience was one of pure epiphany. this was not about rehashing orange’s sizeable discography, or strutting around in leather boots regardless of how well-heeled they’d be with his incrediblely deserved reputation as a brilliant songwriter. this was about connecting. honestly, there were less than 30 people in the cold ballroom last night, but by and large every single person in there was drawn together by the end of the set.

regardless of how unfair it might be to throw out names like phil elvrum or karl blau or kyle field, etc, it is entirely appropriate to make it clear that orange is a prophet of a huge, very focused and tightly knit movement of artists. and it’s also very nice to see that this web extends beyond the pacific northwest into our very own area, as it does with the night’s closing act, drakkar sauna, who are on orange’s marriage records label. these two guys put on quite a show themselves! jeff stoltz sings, weilds guitar, mandolin, keyboard, and a tambourine strapped to one shoe and the other working the bass drum, while wallace cochran does the acoustic thing and a good amount of the vocals. and the vocals - these guys play like they’re on the front porch of a broken down house in the middle of nowhere, and believe me folks, the birds are getting one heck of show.

and yes, last night was the fabled kansas city double-bill night. yes, we did go to the record bar, and yes, we did catch the last 90 seconds of caspian. trilobite was long gone as far as i could tell by that point and i couldn’t find any of their merch, so i’ll try to grab that disc from miles of music instead. i don’t mean any offense to caspian, actors & actresses, or trilobite, but honestly, that was $12 we could have given to the bands we’d just left back at the el torreon.

here’s a few pics of the night:

lake:

adrian orange and the child slavery rebellion:

drakkar sauna:

last night we caught califone at the record bar here in kansas city. although this was a sunday night, i was still surprised to see the turnout as low as it was. ce le vie, right.

because the bar closes at 1:30 on sunday nights instead of 3am, everything was moved up a few hours from the usual weeknight/weekend schedule. this meant the show began around 10pm instead of 11 or midnight. this might not sound like much of a difference but 6:30am comes pretty early.

the opening “act” was the band playing soundtracks to brent green’s animated films. the accompaniment provided by califone ranged from ambient shading to full-on walls of sound, all the while moving beneath the dark, somber images and green’s narration. while the film’s stories were by and large unpleasant in theme, green’s words and the crudely beautiful construction of the animation itself made for an entertaining opening set.

after a short break, califone itself took the stage. playing as a trio, the amount of sound that the band, especially tim rutili and jim becker, were able to produce was amazing. the stage itself was littered with instruments, wires, and metal boxes - it looked like califone had brought their studio on the road with them. even drummer joe adamik, who played hidden behind the film screen during the opening set, was able to add to the layers with a variety of elements.

one thing i greatly appreciated about califone’s set was the band’s willingness to experiment. last night’s show was the first of their tour in support of the great new album roots & crowns (on thrill jockey), and even though the set was heavy with tracks from the album, they still treated us to several sonic excursions that brought to mind the band’s long history of cinema-related projects. banjoes, synths, multiple guitars, bells, effects pedals hooked up more pedals hooked up to samplers . . . califone’s ability to create soundscapes that were at once both archaic and futuristic was a real treat to witness.

i’m honestly overjoyed to see the record bar is continuing to push the boundaries of kansas city’s music scene, which has grown stagnant through concentration on supporting locally-grown bands at the expense of recognizing artists of varying degree from elsewhere in the country, much less the world. with a lineup over the next two months that includes caspian, asobi seksu, green milk from planet orange, charalambides and tara jane o’neill, and the return of one of - if not the greatest - dj in kansas city history, ray velasquez, this place is making it a lot easier to avoid the drive out to lawrence and back. since they do seem to be on really good terms with people over at kork and windish, let’s hope that they’re able to bring even more of the upper crust artists on these two rosters to town.

here’s a couple of pictures and a video shot on my wife’s camera of the night.